The Last One Alive
by griffindork93
Summary: Sakura is the last living member of the Fabled Legendary Team 7. A story told in a recollection of flashbacks about how Team 7 met its end. Be warned, tragedy and character deaths await any who choose to click the link.
1. Prologue

**AN: in honor of my one year anniversary as an author on fanfiction i've decided to update all my in-progress stories and to put up a few new ones. Hopefully, if i ever get writer's block, i can cure it by writing one of seven other stories.**

**This one came in last on the poll, but since I didn't even wait a day to start writing the time travel story (thanks to Angellwriter who gave me the idea). I just had to start writing as soon as I read her review, so I decided that I should write the other two options (although I would have eventually) because I didn't actually wait for everybody's opinion.**

**This story is a flashfic. That means chapters will be short, but no less impactful. And there will be character deaths. You have been warned.**

xxxTheLastOneAlivexxx

Sakura hid in the back of the classroom, cloaked in a simple genjutsu. The only one able to see her was the sensei. If the children knew she would be present, a few of them might have been able to sense her.

She was waiting for the sensei to introduce. At the request of the Academy teachers, who went all the way to the Council when she refused them, Sakura agreed to tell the story of the Legendary Team Seven. She had told the story to hundreds of hopeful shinobi over the years. For many it was discouraging, they dropped out to pursue life as a civilian.

For Sakura, that was the only reason she did as ordered. If not for the fact that her story prevented the death of children, she would have continued to refuse.

That did not mean, however, that the story got any easier to tell. If anything, each year it was harder for her to speak, to relive the memories.

Team Seven's story was one of impossible accomplishments and terrible misfortune. Tragedy followed them like Kirigakure's special ANBU hunter-nin's chased after missing-nins. Its presence was ever looming, threatening to take away all that the held dear and precious and destroy them.

"Here with us today is Sakura Uzumaki." The sensei had to wait for the students' shouts and excitement to calm down before he continued. "Yes, I know you've all been looking forward to this, but let's behave. Listen closely and ask questions, because you will have to turn in a report."

The children groaned. Sakura walked to the center of the room and removed her genjutsu, causing them to scream. She talked above their whispers of "how did she do that?"

"My name is Sakura Uzumaki. My story, Team Seven's story, started like any other team, for the first three minutes. Then everything changed. There were crushing expectations on our team, to shine brilliantly or go down in a blazing fire.

"It started when we were first assigned to a team. The broody last Uchiha devoted only to getting the power he needed to kill his brother. The orphaned son, at the time unknown, of the Fourth Hokage, who held the Kyuubi inside him. And a pink haired girl enamored with the lifestyle and a boy that had no idea what it meant to be a shinobi"

The students listened, riveted by the simple beginning of what history labeled the greatest team in the world. Sakura's words drew them in like moths to a flame, even the sensei who had heard the story eight times already with previous classes.

Sakura spun her tale, telling of their sensei that was always late and a chronic liar. Kakashi had refused to train them seriously until they acknowledged that being a shinobi was not a game, an event that did not happen until Team Seven's mission to wave. Their first mission outside the village's walls had proved that being unprepared would get you killed. Sakura had thought Sasuke had died that day.

She told of how the most important part of a team was not your individual strength, but the ability to work together. Teamwork could make or break a team. It nearly broke Team Seven. Sasuke had been arrogant, refusing to work with the dead last and the talentless girl. Naruto had been brash, always trying to get her attention while she was focused on Sasuke, and constantly trying to prove that he was better than the Uchiha.

And she had been useless. She hadn't taken training seriously in the academy, and so she was woefully unprepared for the level of training Kakashi had given them. Her warning struck a chord in the kunoichi. It was well known every team of three had one female on the team. It was also well known that it was usually the female that was the first to perish.

Sakura continued, detailing their disastrous first chuunin exam, their only one as a team, that ended with Konoha's invasion and the murder of the Sandaime Hokage, and ultimately the breaking of Team Seven. Sasuke had succumbed to his mark, choosing to flee the village for Orochimaru. Naruto left to train with the second of the Sannin, after he had brought back Lady Tsunade to be sworn in as the Fifth Hokage, and Sakura took it upon herself to become stronger, under the last of the Sannin, so that she and Naruto could save Sasuke together.

Her story picked up pace, quickly going through the highlights of the next three years, covering both the good, Naruto's return, Sasuke killing Orochimaru, their rescue of the Kazekage, and the bad, Pein's invasion, Danzou's temporary stint as Hokage, Sasuke's official declaration as a missing-nin, to be tracked and killed, all the way up to the war.

"The real story begins with the Fourth Great Shinobi War."


	2. Chapter 1

"I won't bore you with the details. Your sensei will cover the war in depth in your last year. Truth be told, I didn't care about Madara's plan to trap the world in a genjutsu. At really down times during the war, when all I was doing was burying comrades and desperately racing to save patients, I wondered if Team Seven would be together in that imaginary world."

"But why did you fight if you weren't trying to stop Madara?" one girl asked.

Sakura smiled wistfully. "I fought to protect Naruto. Even if I didn't care if Madara's vision came to pass, he would have had to kill Naruto to do so."

Many of the girls aw'd and cooed, thinking that Sakura was only fighting to protect the man she loved. The pinkette quickly corrected their assumptions.

"The first lesson Kakashi-sensei taught Team Seven was to never abandon a comrade. Team Seven had closer bonds than any other team. We were more like a family for the short time we were together. Dysfunctional, but a family. It was the reason Naruto and I refused to give up on Sasuke. And it was our bonds that helped Sasuke see that revenge would only bring him pain."

* * *

_It was the second time Sakura nearly lost someone she loved._

_The first had been Kakashi-sensei during Pein's invasion of Konoha. He had actually perished that day. Only Naruto's talk with Pein had brought him back to her. But for the longest time she could only cradle the cooling body of her sensei as tears ran down her face._

_This time she nearly lost Sasuke. Even if she was unsure of her feelings for the man, after all, he had tried seriously to kill her, Sakura refused to lose a member of Team Seven._

_They could not lose Sasuke after they just got him back. _

_She hadn't wanted to believe that Sasuke could possibly side with Madara, that he was in cohorts with the enemy to destroy their village. Sasuke had lost himself on his path for revenge. _

"_Why wouldn't I want the village destroyed?" He had replied when Naruto demanded to know why he was doing this. "Look what Konoha did to my brother!"_

_Sasuke's righteous fury had confused her. She hadn't been filled in on the dark and dirty secrets of the truth of the Uchiha Massacre until much later. _

_For what seemed like eternity to Sakura, caught up in this grudge match between Naruto and Sasuke, she feared that Sasuke would see them all burn. _

_And then Sasuke did the unexpected. Breaking away from his fight with Naruto, he had slid his Sword of Kusanagi into Madara's heart all the way up to its black hilt._

"_Itachi sacrificed everything for Konoha. What made you think I would ever destroy the village he gave his life for? You shouldn't have trusted me."_

"_Yes, we Uchihas are quite prone to betrayals, aren't we?"_

_It only took Sakura a second to understand the ancient Uchiha's intention. But she couldn't prevent Sasuke being pierced by the familiar wooden beams Yamato-taichou wielded._

* * *

"You can't stop there!" the class complained. "What happened to Sasuke? Did you save him?"

"Saving Sasuke wasn't easy. It took a team of six medical ninja to repair the internal damage he suffered; the number of times he flat lined that night. And even then he had been left with a few scars. I exhausted myself that night. Ended up spending three days in my own hospital.

"Sasuke was brought back to Konoha. After years of chasing after him he was finally coming home. Lady Tsunade cleared him of all charges, after gleefully telling him that he would be restarting his career as a gennin. Team Seven celebrated. We thought that all our troubles were over, but they were only just beginning."


	3. Chapter 2

"Sasuke was always a prideful person. In his skills. In his abilities. He didn't know the meaning of modesty. He certainly never displayed it. It was one of his many flaws."

"How is pride a flaw?"

Sakura eyed the boy that had spoken. He gave off the same aura she sensed from prodigies. And his posture screamed confidence. "You're top of the class, aren't you." She said. The boy nodded, stunned.

"Sasuke was too. He felt himself so far above the rest of us, superior because of his clan, his bloodline, that he didn't work well on a team. Sasuke was too independent. Because of his pride he readily angered when Naruto or I would learn something faster than he did, and then he would struggle on his own, too stubborn to ask for help.

"A lot of Team Seven's misfortune could have been avoided if he asked for help even once." Sakura sighed heavily. Maybe if he had asked for more training he would have been strong enough to stay in the village.

"That pride also made it hard for Sasuke to assimilate back into the village."

* * *

_Sasuke kicked a pebble down Konoha's empty street. His meeting with the Hokage had taken many hours and night had fallen. In the end, the last Uchiha would have an ANBU guard on him for a year. Tsunade didn't feel the need to restrict him to the village. By claiming that Sasuke was still a gennin because he had not taken or passed a chuunin exam since his first one, he would only be able to do simple D-rank missions around Konoha._

_Naruto threw his arm over the dark haired man's shoulder. "Ne, don't worry about it Sasuke. It's just a rank. It won't stop me from becoming the Sixth Hokage. I'll be the first ever gennin Hokage!"_

_Sasuke scowled at him._

"_There will probably be a chuunin exam soon." She offered. "With all the losses from the war, every village is going to need to fill in their ranks."_

"_Yeah, teme! We can take it together."_

"_Aa. Team Seven taking another chuunin exam. Hopefully there won't be an invasion this time."_

_Naruto's laughed echoed down the street. Sakura smiled happily, pleased that Sasuke was joking around and actually wanted to be a part of Team Seven again._

"_You didn't know? Sakura-chan's a chuunin. She has been for over a year now. Ne, Sakura-chan, are you going to try for jounin?"_

_Naruto's question was innocent. Sakura hadn't really thought about the jounin exams. They were unique to each village, not open to all like the chuunin exams, and they were only held once a year in Konoha. And to be quite frank, she was afraid what type of exam her sadist of a shishou would design; she thought dodge rock was an acceptable training method._

_However, anger flared in Sasuke's onyx eyes._

* * *

"Why was Sasuke so angry? It was just the chuunin exams. Did he really expect you to sit around the village and do nothing while he ran off to get his revenge?"

Sakura rolled her eyes fondly. "Sasuke said for years that he had broken the bonds he shared with us. But our team wouldn't let him, and he truly didn't want to lose them. Team Seven wasn't just teammates. We were family. All of them orphaned with tragic pasts, and I balanced them being the normal girl from a civilian family.

"I think Sasuke always planned to return to Konoha. And he expected us to be waiting at the front gate to welcome him back. I suppose he thought we would pick up where we left off. But with the news that I was a chuunin. . . his pride reared its ugly head."

The rosette quieted as she recalled how he took to ignoring her. Not even a day back in the village and Sasuke reverted to their gennin days. "Sasuke trained obsessively after that. Mostly with Naruto and Kakashi. Not once did he ask to train with me. He refused to be treated by me in the hospital. His pride was breaking our team apart again, and we had only just glued the pieces back together

"Kakashi started hiding behind his porn, placating Sasuke occasionally. Naruto was being run ragged between taking over some of Tsunade's duties in preparation to be Hokage and trying to spend time with both of us when Sasuke refused to be in my presence. In the end I decided to pull away, distance myself from my team. I took extra shifts at the hospital and was soon spending more time there than I was at home.

"The next time I saw Sasuke was three months later."


	4. Chapter 3

"It was no surprise to me that when I finally did see Sasuke it was for a mission. Tsunade had decided three months was enough and she could finally put him to work. I think she must have been drunk when she sent the two of us to renew Konoha's treaty with Suna."

The children laughed at her dry wit. The Fifth Hokage's drinking habits were infamous.

* * *

_Sakura did her best to observe her dark haired teammate unnoticed out of the corner of her eye. His skin was a sickly white color and there were purple shadows under his eyes. _

_Her fingers twitched, wanting to ghost over his skin and see what was wrong. _

"_Good, you're both here." Tsunade slurred. Sakura broke position, stepping forward to swipe her bottle of sake out of the woman's hand._

_The blonde glared at her from under lidded eyes. "I'm sending you two to Suna. It's time to renegotiate the peace treaty."_

_Sakura bit her lip harshly. She was sending Sasuke to keep peace between two nations? Sasuke Uchiha, the man that attacked Kumo to retrieve Killer Bee on a diplomatic mission. Gaara was going to rip him to shreds twice. Once, for all the pain he caused Naruto and a second time because it would put him in his place. This was going to be a disaster._

"_Uchiha, this is your chance to prove your loyalty to Konoha. Show that you've turned over a new leaf." Tsunade pulled out a second bottle from her secret alcohol stash, that Shizune emptied every week, and drank deeply. "Talks will probably take about two weeks."_

_The Godaime made a motion with her hand, her elbow planted on the desk and hand hanging limply at the wrist and she moved it like she was brushing off a fly, dismissing them. _

_Sasuke left immediately, sparing the shortest of glances for his pink haired teammate that strode towards the Hokage to take a large pile of paperwork into her arms. Sakura sat at a small desk in the corner and set to work forging her drunken shishou's signature and summarizing mission reports. _

_The pair set out for Suna before the sun rose, hoping to get most of the way there before the desert heat kicked in. Very little was spoken between them._

_Suna's gate guards let them pass right through to a waiting Temari. The kunoichi brought them straight to the Kazekage's office, and Sakura would swear blind that Sasuke was briefly stunned to see Gaara wearing the hat._

_Gaara rose from behind his desk to greet Sakura with a hug. She had spent a lot of time with the red head during the war, and thanks to her part in saving Kankuro and her saving his life once on the field, she and Gaara had built a strong friendship. _

_He handed her a scroll with the suggested new terms and Sakura spent the night pouring over it, crossing out several clauses and adding a few of her own. Most of it focused on trade of food. Konoha had fertile farms and didn't charge the exorbitant rates the Land of Rice because Konoha had other means of generating income._

_Sasuke's eyes bore into her as she muttered over the scroll, phrases like "ridiculous demand and they know it," and "Tsunade would never agree to that," and "they must be out of their minds to have included that," fell from her lips._

_Dark eyes bore into her back. "You've been avoiding me," he accused._

"_I've been busy, Sasuke. The hospital has been in a state of complete disarray and. . ."_

"_You've been avoiding me. Why?"_

"_Because you've been irrationally angry with me!" Sakura snapped. "You wouldn't talk to me, wouldn't let me heal your injuries, and generally wanted nothing do with me ever since Naruto let slip that I was a chuunin. It was easier to just stop coming because we'd get nothing done. What does it really matter? It's only on paper and I'm sure you could be a jounin."_

_Sasuke remained silent. "You're so annoying!" she huffed. His lips quirked upwards. _

"_Aa."_

* * *

"Sasuke's easy agreement had thrown me. He was never one to admit his faults. The whole situation had gotten out of hand. Yes, he had been angry, but it wasn't at me. Sasuke was angry at himself and the situation. He had said once during our gennin days that my skills were worse than Naruto's and he had just been proven wrong. And he was angry that he had to wait an undetermined amount of time before he could move up through the ranks.

"And a small part of him was angry at me. For leaving him behind. The night he left I professed my love for him, offered to leave with him."

Many students gasped. "Sasuke saw underneath the simple words, hearing the silent promise to always be there for him."

"So he was angry not because you were a chuunin before him, but because you wouldn't be getting the rank with him and Naruto."

"Exactly." Sakura nodded at the young girl who blushed from the praise. "Sasuke's feelings are complicated. On one hand, he was angry that I didn't wait for him to come back so we could take it together, but on the other hand, he would have been angry if I wasn't a chuunin. As the only member of Team Seven that didn't leave the village, it would have been pretty shameful if I was still a gennin.

"Our two weeks in Suna were much more pleasant with that issue solved. Until he learned that Suna imprisoned Team Hebi."


	5. Chapter 4

"Despite all his harsh words and multiple threats to our lives, Sasuke was incapable of breaking the bonds Team Seven shared. In the same manner, he couldn't cut his ties with Team Hebi either."

"Team Hebi?" a girl repeated.

"Team Hebi, Team Snake, named so because all its members were given special abilities by Orochimaru. It was a team built of necessity, so Sasuke could hunt down and kill his brother. Suigetsu's body was literally made of water and he could liquefy to avoid harm. Juugo had the unique ability to absorb natural energy. And Karin was both a sensor and a healer.

"It was the perfect team to track down Itachi. Along the way Team Hebi built bonds as strong as the ones Team Seven shared. Sasuke hadn't known what had become of his second team after the war, but he was pissed to learn that they had been Suna's captives for three months."

* * *

_Sasuke's body stiffened. _

_He had been standing behind Sakura's chair as she squabbled with Suna's Elders and advisors over the recent version of their treaty. The whole procedure was mind numbing, and as he watched silently, he couldn't imagine Naruto sitting in Sabaku's place. Naruto and patience didn't belong in the same sentence. Or book really._

_But then one of them had asked what Konoha planned to do about the captives._

"_What captives?" Sakura asked sharply. "You made no mention of Konoha shinobi being held prisoner."_

_Judging by the Kazekage's stern look of disproval and the other council members' alarm, that knowledge was not supposed to be shared. _

"_Who of our shinobi have you illegally held?" Ice coated her voice. _

_The one that had spoken originally pointed at Sasuke in fear. "They were with him."_

_Sakura mentally prayed to every deity that Sasuke didn't leap over the table and behead the foolish councilman. She pressed the council into a corner. "You have Team Hebi, consisting of Suigetsu Houzuki, Karin, and Juugo, in your custody. Why was Konoha not informed?"_

"_They're not Konoha shinobi!" One blustered. Sakura speared him with a withering glare._

"_Regardless of their affiliation, all villages are to be notified when prisoners of war are taken in the event that their village is willing to negotiate for their release."_

_With Suna clearly in the wrong, Sakura demanded, and got, the immediate release of Team Hebi._

_As they were walking back to their inn Sasuke thanked her. It was the second time he had done so. At least this time she knew what she had done to warrant the word and wasn't going to be left on a stone bench._

"_Don't thank me yet. Tsunade-shishou is not going to be happy about me bringing back three criminal ninja. She's going to kill me for making more paperwork for her."_

* * *

"Did the Fifth Hokage really kill you?"

"Of course she didn't you idiot. She's standing right in front of us."

The first boy turned to face the boy that scoffed at him. "But Tsunade-sama was capable of medical miracles. She could revive the dead."

"That's impossible."

The class's sensei cut off their verbal fight. "Settle down."

Sakura couldn't stop a smile from forming. The two boys reminded her so much of Naruto and Sasuke when they were gennin. "Now, there are ways to bring those that have died back to life. Chiyo-sama revived the Kazekage once, after his Bijuu had been removed, and there were many people who could use Edo Tensei to reanimate the dead. But Tsunade wasn't one of them.

"She didn't kill me, but at the time, the punishment she gave me made me wish she had."


	6. Chapter 5

"What did she do to you?" a curious gennin asked. "What punishment is worse than death?"

Sakura sighed. How long had she held onto that childish naivety? That the worst that could happens was dying. She had learned there were much worse things over the years.

"Dying is not a punishment." Sakura corrected. "Death is the world's one certainty. It tolls for everyone, and earlier for shinobi. Death is release, freedom. It's preferable to fighting a war with no end, to losing all those around you."

The children quieted at her prose. Sakura decided to move away from the morbid topic. She had plenty of depressing stories to share.

"Tsunade, in her infinite wisdom, decided since I was so determined to have Team Hebi freed and brought back to Konoha, that it was my responsibility to look after them. Which, in vindictive woman speak," several girls giggled here as boys looked at them nervously, "that any trouble they caused would be put on my record and I would pay for any damage."

* * *

"_You've got to be kidding me. I've must have drunk more than I thought. Sakura, please tell me that the three brats standing behind Uchiha are a drunken hallucination?"_

_Sakura winced at her shishou's honey sweet tone, knowing she was in for it. "So, shishou. Suna was holding them captive since the end of the war. I couldn't leave them there."_

_She blamed her heart, soft to the core. Sakura hated the idea of people suffering, and that extended to include misguided subordinates of Orochimaru that had no place to go besides Sasuke. "They came at no cost to Konoha," she felt the need to add._

_Tsunade's eyes narrowed at her apprentice. They may have come at no cost from Suna, but the same could not be said for the other villages. _

"_I will accept them on one condition. They will be limited to the same restrictions as Sasuke."_

_Team Hebi, who had laughed uproariously, complained, or sympathized, with Sasuke's punishment immediately protested. Each of them was at least chuunin when a part of Sound. Only Juugo wasn't complaining about be demoted to gennin, but Sakura got the feeling that he didn't really want to be a ninja. At least not in the true assassin of the night, cold blooded killer manner. He was a really gentle soul that dislike killing and fought to protect Sasuke because he could control Juugo's enraged state._

"_Enough. That is my decision. If you don't like it, feel free to go shack up with your old master."_

_Suigetsu and Karin paled at the indirect threat on their lives and hurried to agree to the Hokage's terms. _

"_Sakura, all four of them will be rooming with you."_

"_Shishou! I don't have enough room in my apartment for . . . did you say four?" Sakura blinked. "I have to put up Sasuke too?"_

_She had avoided looking at her one time crush since they stepped in the office, seeing as she wasn't as confident as she had pretended to be that Tsunade would welcome his second team into the village. Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, Sakura was afraid that he would be angry, being forced to move out of his apartment._

_Surprisingly, Sasuke didn't look annoyed at the idea. In fact, she thought she might have caught a slight upward tilt of his lips._

"_And you will be moving into one of the inconspicuous safe houses along the village's wall so that they're well out of the way. You'll be held responsible for any misbehavior, damage to training grounds or other village property, or any other crimes they commit." Tsunade said cheerfully._

_Sakura sagged at that announcement. Considering Sasuke went out of his way to find new teammates exactly like his old ones in personality, there was no way they could all live under the same roof and expect the building to remain standing. Especially not once Naruto, Kakashi, Sai, and Yamato caught wind of it. Naruto would be demanded they all move in too and be one big happy Team Seven family._

_She could already imagine the fights._

"_And Sakura," the busty Hokage called as the five were exiting her office, "you have to pay their bounties."_

* * *

"She made you pay their bounties?" one student repeated incredulously. "That's totally unfair."

"Sasuke thought so too," the pinkette remarked. "He had to catch me when I fainted and carried me to our new home for nine months. When I woke again he told me that Tsunade was quite possibly the cruelest of the three Sannin."

"But wasn't it bad enough she was making you completely responsible for them?"

"Tsunade hates paperwork." Sakura said simply, causing many students to facepalm. "By bringing them back, I would have caused international issues with the villages they attacked and abandoned to join Orochimaru. By paying them the bounties as reparations, they were happy to let the matter slid.

"Still, it killed my savings and caused me a lot of overtime. But paying it off was easier than dealing with Karin."


	7. Chapter 6

**Yes. I know. It's been forever. Read my profile if you want to know why or just read and find out how Sakura dealt with whiny Karin.**

* * *

Sakura couldn't keep the irritation off her face as she thought of the red head that had been distantly related to Naruto.

Karin's constant advances on Sasuke and shrill screeching whenever Sakura, Naruto, Sai, Kakashi, or Suigetsu had said anything resembling an insult to him had made her feel deeply sorry for Sasuke for having to put up with her and Ino and a dozen other girls during their academy days.

If one ignored his surly attitude and bastard-ish tendencies, Sasuke had both the looks and the skills to earn well deserved admiration.

Admittedly, her fangirling was well over that line.

But she had toned it down a long time before Sasuke came home.

Karin, on the other hand, held fast to the belief that the last Uchiha was actually interested in her.

* * *

_Sakura thought it might be because she had breasts she could flaunt. Or maybe because she had actually proved to be of use to Sasuke when he was still assholishly tracking down his wronged brother._

_Whatever the reason, Karin refused to admit that Sasuke wanted nothing to do with her romantically and raised hell any time a member of Team Seven attempted to defend their avenger's honor. _

_One time, when she had gotten exasperated with the other woman's never ending monologue of how she and Sasuke would make the strongest babies ever seen, Sakura had soundly slapped the woman._

_The pinkette had been very grateful for the two minutes of silence that followed. _

_Until Karin opened her mouth and screeched like a banshee._

"_What was that for you little bitch?" _

_She had tried to rake her too manicured nails, which were sharp enough to be considered weapons in Sakura's opinion, across the medic's face, and Sakura had broken her wrist in retaliation._

"_When well you learn that Sasuke doesn't love you?" She snapped at the red head. "He doesn't even like you. He put up with you because you could do something for him. But that was it. You're nothing to him."_

"_But he came for me. He fought Suna to get me out of prison." Karin protested._

_Sakura was speechless. "What? No. Where the hell did you get that idea? Sasuke had no part in your release."_

"_You're lying! Sasuke would have never let Suna keep us."_

"_Sasuke had no choice. He may have been upset that Suna was holding you. But it wasn't because he loved you. And he certainly didn't demand that they let you go. As a former criminal, Sasuke had no power. You were released because of me. I stipulated that Suna had to let us take you because they had no right to hold you. And I only did that because Sasuke would never want his team to rot in prison for aiding him."_

_Sakura advanced on the shaking red head, oblivious to the dark haired man that had entered the kitchen behind her. Karin trembled violently as she stalked her like a tiger would hunt its prey._

"_Let's make one thing perfectly clear, Karin. You are alive on my generosity. You are free on my good will. You have the opportunity to become an upstanding kunoichi because I am responsible for you." _

_With each word Sakura spoke, Karin paled, until she was so white that her hair looked like blood against her skin. "So if you ever, try to force yourself on my teammate again, if you ever call Sai a replacement that doesn't belong, if you ever insult Naruto again, I will kill you. I will make it look natural and no one will question your disappearance. Am I understood?"_

_Karin frantically nodded her head, scrabbling at the floor to get away from the medic. She ran from the room, and Sakura faintly heard her door slam upstairs._

_It was only then, as she turned back to operation forms that needed her approval before they could move forward, that Sakura noticed Sasuke leaning against the kitchen counter._

"_Welcome home, Sasuke." She smiled softly._

_And it was home. Despite having to deal with a delusional Karin, this house had become a home for Sakura. Suigetsu was crass, but that was nothing she hadn't dealt with before, and she and Tsunade were working on a cure for Juugo. When he wasn't enraged, Juugo was very pleasant. _

_The rest of Team Seven had moved in without asking. Sakura didn't complain because it meant she had all of her boys under one roof where she could take care of them. And they deserved to have someone to look out for them and only them._

_So Sakura didn't nag Naruto when he asked for ramen for every meal, instead stocking the cupboards so he could have his noodles whenever he pleased, and didn't say anything about picking up after him. She let Kakashi bring his porn into the house and packed him bentos for when he would go to the memorial. Sakura proudly displayed Sai's artwork, claiming that they made the house warmer and no longer flew off the handle when he suggested that she pose naked for him. She meticulously took care of chores like vacuuming, dusting, washing the dishes, doing the laundry and kept the living room in top condition for the ever organized Yamato who couldn't stand disorder and mess. And as much as it pained her and made her ears bleed, she ran interference for Sasuke, doing her best to keep Karin away from him, always made a dish containing tomatoes once a day, and slipped him C-rank assignments around Konoha._

_Sakura would do anything for her boys. She was sure that all of them but Naruto knew what she was doing, but they never asked her to stop. A little well intended fussing never hurt anyone._

_Sasuke pushed away from the countertop. In one quick movement he had tilted her head up and captured her lips. "Thank you."_

_The kiss had only lasted seconds, but he strolled away, leaving her behind, dazed. _

* * *

That wasn't the last time she heard him say thank you. And it wasn't the last time that she had kissed Sasuke.

In front of her the girls burst into a cacophony of questions.

"What was it like?" and "Was that your first kiss?" and "Did Karin get mad at you for that?"

The boys, on the other hand, mimed throwing up, clutching at their stomachs and moaning and groaning, say how kissing was gross.

"Sasuke was a wonderful kisser. What he couldn't say with words, he let his actions speak for. With that one kiss he told me how much he appreciated everything I was doing for him."


End file.
